• The Hunters – two-hour back-door pilot, The Hunters is the story of a secret society with a mission to find the broken shards of the magic mirror Snow White shattered hundreds of years ago. It’s a race against time as the mirror’s pieces, now hidden across the world, have the potential to be harnessed for great evil.

Star Trek: Snow White: In the 23rd Century, seven warriors from the planet of the golden midgets (as seen in "Journey To Babel"), discover an ancient Earth probe containing the body of a young albino woman in suspended animation. Their analysis of the probe's data banks indicate that the only man who can revive her is still alive-- and is living the life of a corrupt and decadent prince in the heart of the Orion Empire. They immediately set out on a dark and gritty quest that will bring them to the very edgy edge of the galaxy-- for unless this snow white corpsicle is revived, the universe itself will perish! And there's no time to lose! But plenty of time for balls-to-the-wall action! Rated M for Mature!

NBC is the most interesting network because its ongoing failure opens up possibilities. Plus, its few successes this year (Grimm and Smash) were definitely not safe choices compared with the cop-and-lawyer-show approach, which didn't work for them.) I find NBC the most fascinating network to follow every year, and it looks like this year is no exception.

I've been looking forward to The Frontier as a straight-ahead Western. The saga of people trying to survive the arduous overland journey should be drama enough, especially if the characters are well chosen. It sounds like it could have a supernatural element - as long as it's not heavy handed, it could work.

The reviewer doesn't give any predictions for pickups, but says "their slate this year is significantly stronger than last year's candidates were." That's a relief! No more Playboy Clubs, please.

Beautiful People might have potential, although the question of AI rights has been addressed before in SF. Do No Harm, with the idea of the "Jekyll" and "Hyde" personas making a deal with one another to coexist, reminds me of Steven Moffat's Jekyll miniseries, but it'll have a hard time equaling it.

I'm glad they're no longer describing the unnamed Bad Robot pilot as being set in a world where "all forms of energy" have ceased to exist (since that would mean the entire universe vanished), but "where electricity no longer exists" is equally silly, since it's electrostatic forces that hold matter together, not to mention that neurons function electrochemically. There must be less stupid ways to justify a post-apocalyptic world without modern technology.

And wait, they're doing a sitcom with Bill Pullman as the President of the US? Is it set in the aftermath of a global alien invasion?

I'm actually not displeased to hear that Awake is getting "soft" numbers and may not get renewed. It had a brilliant pilot, but the subsequent series has squandered much of its potential and isn't nearly as satisfying.

I like the plot twist in the most recent episode of Awake that implies

that Britten really is experiencing two realities, and that the serial killer may also be awake in both realities and was leaving clues for Britten in one reality to see if he'd follow up in the other, as a test.

The bit about electricity not existing could mean one of two things: the electrical grid has failed, or any attempt to generate electricity for power will fail for some unknown reason, even though electromagnetism as a physical force still exists just fine.

It would be nice to get some clarity on that issue, because it's a huge difference - is this an end-of-the-world survival scenario after the breakdown of society, or is this a hand-waving conspiracy type show, where the conspirators have sinister abilities beyond human ken?

"AI rights" hasn't been done to death on TV (yet). I'm happy for NBC to take a crack at it. Too many of the sci fi shows are the hand-waving mystery type, where it's impossible to tell how they'll turn out but the track record ain't good...

I like the plot twist in the most recent episode of Awake that implies

that Britten really is experiencing two realities, and that the serial killer may also be awake in both realities and was leaving clues for Britten in one reality to see if he'd follow up in the other, as a test.

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I don't see that. Just about every episode has shown Michael getting random clues in one reality that connected to a case in the other; it's one of the core conceits of the show. And if anything,

the evidence seems to be consistently suggesting that the Red world is real and the Green world is a dream. There have been lots of cases of something happening first in Red and then being reflected/important in Green, or of Michael learning something in Red that he couldn't possibly have known, but there's been nothing conclusive going the other way. Not to mention the improbability of Michael coming across Gemini's first victim (in Green), or the sheer melodrama of the cases he gets in Green compared to Red -- it just feels less real (in which case the duality-obsessed, Two-Face-style serial killer is a reflection of Michael's dual existence). Which really sucks, because the original idea was that it was supposed to be unclear which world was real.

Although, of course, this is not the Awake thread, so we don't want to get too deeply into this here.

• The Hunters – two-hour back-door pilot, The Hunters is the story of a secret society with a mission to find the broken shards of the magic mirror Snow White shattered hundreds of years ago. It’s a race against time as the mirror’s pieces, now hidden across the world, have the potential to be harnessed for great evil.

Several genre pilots are apparently in good shape - Midnight Sun, The Last Resort, The Selection, 666 Park Avenue, and The Frontier which definitely sounds genre at this point - I'm hoping Beautiful People will be added to that list. No word on Abrams' series formerly known as Revolution.

The word that describes the in-development independent series Drifter, on pretty much every level, is ambitious — ambitious in scope and ambitious in approach. Set to begin production in mid-July, the sci-fi/comedy/drama project is crowdfunding its pilot online — but setting its sights on television.
Created by Jeff Koenig, the premise of Drifter could be boiled down to “boy meets girl.” Except the story takes place 150 years from now, and the “girl” in this case (Julie Ann Emery, also a producer and co-writer) is an artificial intelligence manifesting as a character in an interactive TV show, a show the boy (Darren Le Gallo) is watching while lost in space with 12 days to live. There’s also a Battlestar Galactica-esque subplot focusing on a military commander trying to save the lost astronaut and handle the political opposition to the mission — making for a unique combination of genre and tone.

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interesting premise for a half hour pilot.

The only way to watch the Drifter pilot will be to contribute to Drifter‘s crowd-funding campaign, currently being run through the site Mobcaster; even contributing one dollar gets donors access to the completed pilot online. The reason for this is that the pilot will not be receiving a wide release — instead, it’ll be used for pitching to networks (as well as companies like Hulu and Netflix) as a step towards a full release.

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As of writing, the Drifter team has raised over $1,300 of its $25,000 goal, with almost two months left to go. If they don’t reach their goal, Koenig says that while they would have to reschedule this summer’s shoot, they would move forward in another direction.

Some news on Rewind (the SyFy series about a time travelling "military field operatives and civilian scientists") casting. They're going diverse, which is nice to see, including the girl from Whale Rider and a coupla good looking guys.

The character bios are squarely the quirky-genius SyFy "type," I see...and of course the black guy has to be the white lead character's best friend and go-to guy. But still, I have a better feeling about this show than anything SyFy's produced for a while. Probably won't be groundbreaking, but could be fun.

...Priya, the team’s a-typical historian, a behavioral anthropologist who provides analytical context to the project and the missions, and whose knowledge of history extends beyond the boundaries of facts...Bryce, a brilliant scientist who graduated MIT when she was 18; the smartest person in the room who is obsessive and driven and doesn’t really care what people think of her...Danny, Henry Knox’s friend and the man Knox trusts most to help him get the job done as they embark on their perilous mission into the past...Charlie, a mathematician who has patented an innovative piece of technology that can reduce history to mathematics, in order to measure the team’s actions in the past.